


Joining Parades

by lonelywalker



Category: Brothers & Sisters
Genre: Jossed, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-18
Updated: 2011-04-18
Packaged: 2017-10-18 08:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonelywalker/pseuds/lonelywalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Relationships, threesomes, and parades. Surely two out of three isn't bad?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Joining Parades

_I'm one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades._  
\- Nathan Lane

Over the years, Henry has discovered that, despite any assumptions people might make to the contrary, a Kawasaki Ninja is absolutely no good for making pizza deliveries.

It had seemed like a good enough idea at the time: picking up food on the way home from work, secure in the assumption that Saul wouldn't have bothered to cook for himself. Left without a dinner or theater date, Saul is always much more likely to select a good bottle of wine and spend the night savoring it in the company of Bach or Haydn. And, although Henry has very little against either wine or classical music, it does seem a shame to let his boyfriend spend yet another evening alone.

He parks his bike behind Saul's car in the lot, earning a few disapproving stares from middle-aged passersby who probably take him for some young hooligan about to terrorize the neighborhood. He can only wish. The ride from the pizza place had been shaky at best, trying to balance the pizza box on his knees, even though he'd taken advantage of quiet streets where no one would look at him too strangely. So he dusts down the box, straightening out the dents as best he can, and heads off into the building.

They'd exchanged keys months ago, mostly so that Henry wouldn't have to wake Saul up, returning from work late at night. It's nice, some evenings, to come here as if this is home, and slip into bed beside his lover. It's nice to wake up here on weekend mornings and pull on one of the old t-shirts he has stashed in a drawer and make breakfast as if he never does it anywhere else.

Now, however, he only needs to punch in a code to gain access to the building, and Saul's door is unlocked. Surprisingly for the hour, however, he's not alone.

Henry hasn't has as much contact with Saul's family as he might otherwise have liked, due to the various crises that have reared their heads since Kitty's baby shower. He's spoken to Nora on the phone a few times, usually when she's phoned the apartment looking for her brother, and he and Saul had gone out to a tiny LA theater with Kevin and Scotty one night (although Scotty had had to sit on Kevin's Blackberry all evening to stop him from glancing at it anxiously every few minutes). But the rest of the family remains little more than vague impressions garnered at the shower, or a list of names stuck to his fridge.

Fortunately, it's a familiar face here now - Nora, warming her hands on an oversized coffee cup next to Saul on the couch - and she only has time for a quizzical, "Did you order pizza?" before Henry flips up his visor.

"I'm sorry. I'm interrupting." Even with only one Walker family gathering under his belt, he's already surmised that it's often better to quietly slink away until the drama has passed.

He's greeted with a Walker-Holden chorus of denials before he even has the chance to set down the pizza.

"Henry, it's so good to see you!"

Well. It's a relief that he hasn't walked straight into another round of family angst. No one is crying yet, at least. "It's good to see you too," he says to Nora, hoping that they're not quite at the awkward hugging stage. Taking off his helmet, he leans down to kiss Saul hello. "Sorry. I should've called."

Surprisingly, Saul lets the kiss linger, cupping Henry's cheek with a hand to keep him there for a few moments longer. "It's fine. Really. We both know you can't figure out that phone."

"Mm." Henry wriggles out of his jacket and straightens up, uncertain of what to do now. It's entirely possible that he really is interrupting important, confidential family business, no matter what they say. "I... think I'll take a shower," he says, examining the grazes and smears of dirt on his elbows and forearms. "Softball league," he explains as soon as Nora opens her mouth to ask. Too often at the weekends, his work is less about sitting at a computer, and more about impromptu athletic competitions with hyperactive teenagers. "And, yes, I'm far too old for this. I'll be downing Advil all night, and I didn't get further than third base all day."

Smirking, he has to press his fingers to Saul's mouth to stop him from saying another word.

***

"You spend an inordinate amount of time in my shower," Saul says when Henry trails back in, twenty minutes later, wearing his own jeans and one of Saul's sweaters. "I'm beginning to think you're developing a fixation on... well. On my fixtures."

Nora's gone, the coffee cups washed up in the sink, and freshly reheated pizza steaming in the box. Henry pulls open the fridge in search of Coca-Cola, and settles for a cold beer instead. Even that's new. He suspects Saul shops for him now in the same way Henry tries to bring home dinner for them both, and he doesn't mind this glimmer of domesticity at all. "Is Nora all right?"

"Wonderful. Perfect. Delighted to see you, by the way." Saul gesticulates with his pizza. "I think she'd begun to think you'd run off in mortal terror of her children."

Henry settles down on the couch beside him, popping off the bottle cap. "I thought you two might be talking business. I don't want to overhear anything I shouldn't about your nephew's case."

Saul seems much less concerned with privacy issues, reaching over to stroke his fingers over Henry's newly-cut hair. It's been chopped down to a crew cut again, all the better for summer days and early starts. "You're family, Henry. No one's worried about you running to the press. Anyway, the legal side of things is over."

"The charges have all been dropped?" Henry takes a sip from the bottle, and settles back into his lover's arms with a contented sigh.

"Holly kept her word on that, at least."

"Mm. Good." Smiling, Henry turns to kiss Saul, and pulls back slightly at the last second, regarding him with a suspicious eye. "So what's bothering you?"

Once his apparently contented view of things has been questioned, the weight is instantly back on Saul's shoulders. "You don't want to hear about my problems. I want to hear about you. I haven't seen you in..."

"Saulie." A cold bottleneck is pressed to his lips. "We're not going to bed with your mind on anything but me. So spill."

Saul pushes Henry's hand away with a reluctant smile. "All right. All right. Tommy... Tommy isn't coming back from Mexico. He has to _find himself_ , apparently. I can't say I don't know the feeling."

"If you're going to Mexico, you're taking me with you." Henry leans forward to pick up a slice of lukewarm pizza. It doesn't seem quite as appealing as it had an hour before. "So his family are moving down there?"

"I don't know. Julia's might be going to stay with her parents." Saul's back to absently playing with Henry's hair. "I wish you hadn't cut it. I like having a boyfriend who isn't going bald."

"It'll grow back. So they're getting a divorce?"

Saul shrugs. Sighs. "Who knows. Who even knows what's _best_ , these days. I don't think that 'staying together for the kids' does anyone any favors."

Henry is busy munching on pizza, considering the issue. "No, not if the situation truly is beyond the pale. But I'm not sure what it says about us as a society if it's easier to get divorced than work through your problems as a couple, or as a family."

"It's easier not to have a relationship at _all_ when you put it that way." Saul puts up his hands as Henry frowns at him. "I don't mean that. I'm very grateful for what we have. But I don't know how anyone tolerates coming home to someone they can't stand to be around. Someone who doesn't have time for them, or someone who treats them like dirt."

"Mm." Henry's arm rests lightly against Saul's shoulders. "If I ever treat you like that, you have my permission to toss my bike in a trash compactor. And me along with it."

Saul reaches up to tangle their fingers, and Henry smiles at the sensation of skin against skin. "I've never been in a relationship where it was even an issue... Where it was anything more than casual. I'd end it at the first sharp word."

"And this relationship?" In some ways it has to be a foregone conclusion - they've been seeing each other for more than six months, spending all their free time together, practically living together - but Henry knows the bottom line is that Saul's simply never done this before. And for a man in his sixties to commit to a long-term relationship, particularly with another man? Perhaps it's asking far too much.

The pause before Saul says anything seems to confirm his fears. And then: "Have you ever had a threesome?"

He can only interpret it as an accusation. A reason why Saul might not want to be with him. "Saulie. I haven't been with anyone else since we met. I haven't wanted to."

"No, no." Saul squeezes his fingers, pats his thigh in reassurance. "I didn't mean that. It's just... Do you remember Nora's architect?"

"How could I forget?" The man had reduced Nora to tears without even being in the room.

"Right. Right. Well, he left his wife, finally. And then Kevin called me about some kind of moral dilemma with Scotty..." Apparently realizing just how complicated this is, Saul gives up on explanations. "It's just been a topic of conversation lately. And I wondered if you had. Had a threesome."

Henry finishes his pizza, deciding that the only possible answer is the truth. Saul's had enough trouble with deception lately. "In college... It was the sixties. And then it was the seventies. Never anything serious, and then the eighties put a stop to all of that. I was just glad to be alive and healthy."

"I can't even imagine..." Saul says softly, his head a reassuring pressure against Henry's shoulder. "I was only thinking about what you said at the baby shower, that people can be happy in any kind of relationship. And that... I know I'm older than you are, and I'm not quite so..."

The words are delivered so calmly that they disturb him more than they would if Saul was screaming. "Saul..."

"I just want you to know that if you _need_ to... This relationship means more to me than anything in the world, and if you want to be with someone younger. Someone more athletic or better looking. Then that's all right. I won't stop you."

" _I'd_ stop me," Henry says, his tone just as calm. "I don't need anyone else. I don't want anyone else." He hugs Saul tightly, kissing his cheek. "But thank you for thinking that I could score a hot young guy. You're very sweet."

"I hear Chad Barry's single..."

Henry laughs. "Why are you suddenly so insecure? From what you've told me, Kevin and Scotty have the only rock solid marriage in your entire family. That should be a good sign as far as we're concerned."

"You're right," Saul nods, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. "You're right. I'm sorry. Sometimes I think you're far too good to be true."

"That's only because I'm the only man you've ever been with. Perhaps _you_ need some outside experience now that you've got over those beginner's nerves."

Saul stretches, weary. "Oh, please. I'm very happy to be a one-man man, particularly when that one man brings me dinner and looks good in leather. Thank you for that, by the way. Nora was very impressed."

"Was she? I'll have to make a habit of it." One kiss to Saul's temple and he's already thinking about getting them both into the bedroom as quickly as possible. Before they'd met, Henry had been happy to stay up most of the night reading amid the piles of books in his apartment, before finally drifting off on the couch. Now, he'd much prefer to curl up in his lover's bed, and talk - even if most of it is nonsense. Perhaps it's age. He's sore and exhausted from the day's activities, chasing around "kids" of twenty-five or thirty, and exhilarated at the same time, thoroughly enjoying the scrapes on his elbows and knees.

His lips brush against Saul's hair, as he blindly starts to unbutton Saul's shirt. "We have an LGBT... Q? I think there might be a Q too. An LGBTQ thing next weekend, if you're free. You can wear those socks I bought you."

Saul chuckles, but Henry can already feel the tension in him - that fear of being embarrassed, of being pointed at and ridiculed. "You know that's really not my thing. But thank you for asking."

"Scotty Wandell's coming," Henry says softly, wondering just how far he can push as another button falls open. "Kevin too, probably."

"Scotty might be able to twist Kevin's arm, but..." Saul looks at him, and sighs. "I just don't feel comfortable in that sort of situation. What is it, anyway? One of those... gay pride marches?"

Sometimes Henry has to marvel at how Saul can be so at peace with his sexuality around his family, and so distinctly uncomfortable in the presence of other gay men. It's more or less the exact opposite of Henry's own experience. "It's an urban scavenger hunt, and you'd love it. I'd love it, if you were there. I want you to meet my friends."

He can only imagine the concept Saul must have of these friends of his. But Saul only sighs. "I don't have to... wear anything strange, do I?"

"Well, leather chaps and a rainbow headband are obviously _de rigeur_ ," Henry replies, deadpan, before giving Saul a nudge. "Of course not. The worst thing you might have to do is hold my hand."

It's supposed to be a joke, but Henry can't recall seeing even Kevin and Scotty, a loving married couple, hold hands in public. Saul, however, manages a smile. "All right. If you're not embarrassed by me, I can't very well be embarrassed by... By anything."

There's much he could be insulted by in that admission, but he appreciates the ground Saul is giving more than anything. "Good. I know that you'll love it. And I'll even come to one of your family dinners in return if you like."

"You'd have to make me dance naked in the streets to deserve that." Saul stretches, weary. "We haven't eaten much of your pizza."

"It'll be better tomorrow, anyway." Henry forces himself to get up off the couch, and extends a hand to help Saul up. "Ready for bed?"

And Saul, always quicker and stronger than he expects, catches his wrist and pulls him down again, kissing him with an intensity that catches Henry off guard. Perhaps he has something to prove.

"Or I guess we can stay up," Henry murmurs, happily surprised, as he settles in to kiss him more seriously and Saul's fingers stroke down his arm.

"What did you do to yourself?" Saul asks, almost absently, fingertips finding broken skin. "You young scamp. You're worse than Justin. Worse than Cooper, even." He kisses Henry's bearded cheek softly. "Please don't leave me."

The words are so vague, whispered in a sigh, that Henry might have missed them entirely. "Shhh," he says, smiling and troubled all at once. "Stop that. I'm not leaving you."

He would kiss him then, as if to prove it, but Saul obviously just needs to talk. "I'm not a young man, Henry. I'm not good at this. I'm not good at being... happy."

"You are. You just don't know it yet."

"Mm. Relationships, and threesomes, and parades... I've never done any of them. But I want to, for you." He catches Henry's eye, suddenly grinning. "The relationship part, anyway, and I can probably be convinced about the parades."

He is kissed, then, good and well. "You need to be convinced to come to bed with me, rather than getting maudlin on the couch."

Saul just looks at him for a moment before finally pulling him in for another kiss. "You didn't get further than third base all day?"

Henry has a multitude of excuses but, despite any assumptions people might make to the contrary, at this moment he has absolutely no desire to use any of them.


End file.
